The care management interface with general practice: a case study

This paper reports on a care management initiative at the interface of social work, general practice and district nursing. The aims were to describe the organizational factors, operational criteria and the views of key managers, professionals and users of the care management pilot based in general practice. A multi-method case study design was used. This comprised: retrospective analysis of general practitioner (GP) referrals to social services, reviews of case records of clients in the care management system, and in-depth interviews with stakeholders, professionals, users and carers. This paper focuses on the analysis of the referral information to social services and district nursing from general practice and the themes arising from the interview data such as communication, referral pathways and professional role boundaries. The views of users and carers are presented in terms of satisfaction with continuity, responsiveness and appropriateness of the assessment and delivery of care. Although this care management pilot was discontinued when the funding ceased, the evaluation showed that there were benefits in terms of improved understanding between general practitioners, social workers, and district nurses of working systems, procedures and the organizational constraints of joint working.